Climate change to bring more sizzling summers, study says

7:12 PM,
Sep. 5, 2013

Written by

Wendy Koch
| USA TODAY

Brace yourself for more hot summers ahead. Extreme weather researchers report on Thursday that climate change makes the searing summer that the struck the United States last year much more likely.

In fact, July 2012-like heat is now four times as likely to strike the Midwest and Northeast as it was in pre-industrial America when less carbon dioxide warmed the atmosphere, according to a Stanford University study. Last year's heat wave, which peaked in July -- the warmest month on record for the contiguous USA -- exacerbated the nation's drought, ruined crops and contributed to more than 100 ...